Holidaying at Home

May 27, 2020May 27, 2020 / Eleanor Jane / 5 Comments

At the moment I should be spending two weeks in the Hebrides. I love spending time in Scotland and was very much looking forward to the trip but I have been determined to make the best of the time and try to make this fortnight feel different to the rest of this time at home.

I started by wanting to read books set in the right area. I had intended to take Dorothy L Sayers’ Five Red Herrings with me as it is set near where I was due to be staying. It is several years since I read it last but I have always remembered it as one of my favourites in the Lord Peter Wimsey series. I had forgotten how complicated it is though – this time around I had a terrible time keeping all of the various alibis and timelines in my head!

I intended to read more books set in Scotland but have ended up reading whatever happened to take my fancy. Apart from Five Red Herrings I have been trying to restrict myself to my TBR shelf which is once again getting out of hand. I was hoping that the lockdown would help me burn through it a bit but I’ve spent a lot of time seeking comfort by re-reading old favourites. I also know that there are a whole load of brand new books I will buy as soon as I’m back in a bookshop. I have a list.

For my ‘holiday’ fortnight I have been just browsing the shelf and taking whatever I happen to feel like reading that day. The result has been quite eclectic – so far I’ve had Backstage with Peggy by Doris A Pocock, The Fowl Twins by Eoin Colfer, October Man by Ben Aaronovitch, The Girl Who Reads on the Métro by Christine Féret-Fleury and I’ve just moved on to Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. I am currently feeling the call of L M Montgomery though and I may soon have to abandon the TBR for her.

So far this week has been even more laid back than last week and I have spent many happy hours outside with my book and a cup of tea. We have been getting quite inventive with the places we choose to sit – much use has been made of the ponies’ fields – in order to make this fortnight feel a little different. It is working though – is really does feel like a holiday.

Lockdown Lit Fest

May 20, 2020 / Eleanor Jane / 3 Comments

The lockdown is certainly creating a great deal of creativity when it comes to meeting up. I have recorded music with my choir and have regular orchestra and ballet rehearsals over Zoom. It has been fun to see everyone and to have a bit of structure in the week.

My favourite discovery so far though has been the rise of online literary festivals. I love book festivals but I can’t usually get to many of them so the idea of having them come to me is just wonderful. Obviously it’s not the same as getting to go to them but it is far better than nothing.

The online Hay Festival is coming up at the end of this week and I have booked my place at a whole load of the talks. I am going to be in front of a screen for an awful lot of time next week!

First though, Chawton House had their own lockdown festival this past weekend. Apparently they’ve been wanting to do a festival for a while and the lockdown pushed them into putting something together. I have to say that if they do manage to have an actual in person festival I will be doing my very best to get there. Even if they don’t, I have realised that I need to visit – the only time I’ve been to the house was for the AGM of the Jane Austen Society so I didn’t get to see very much of it (I have made a proper visit to Jane Austen’s House Museum but I would love to see that again as well).

I have had a lovely weekend watching the talks and feeling very intellectual for doing so. It was so interesting to see a bit of behind the scenes of the house and to learn more not just about the people who lived there but also about some related books – like The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner which is out next week and sounds great. I also had a brilliant time playing with some found poetry using lines from poems in the house.

I have come away with a renewed enthusiasm for 18^th and 19^th century writers and a list of new to me authors to try. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard of George Sand but not Jane West or Jane Porter and I certainly haven’t read any of them. They are firmly on my list now though and I am very keen to read them soon. It is such a great feeling!

The festival is obviously over now but some of the talks are still available on the Chawton House youtube channel. If you can I would highly recommend you have a watch!

Reading in Lockdown

May 13, 2020 / Eleanor Jane / 2 Comments

I know that many people were struggling to read at the beginning of the lockdown but that wasn’t a problem I had. All I wanted to do was devour books all day long. However, as the weeks have gone on I’ve found that my reading rate has slowed down considerably. I couldn’t really understand it as I was fairly sure that I was spending the same amount of time reading. Having said that, I have also been keeping myself very busy with other things such as chores outside, painting and crochet – things I never normally make the time to do.

My reading had definitely slowed down though and in the end I decided it must be because of my reading choices – I was steadily reading my way through the Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome. I absolutely love these books but I do have to admit that they are very gentle stories and not action packed – they are not the kind of fast-paced book which forces you to keep reading so you know what happens next. They very much allow you to take your time and luxuriate in them.

It has been wonderful to re-read my way through the series in order (apart from Winter Holiday which I read every Christmas and didn’t want to read again so soon) but I am beginning to feel the need to read something a bit more gripping. Not that I will stop reading Swallows and Amazons – I will just intersperse them a bit with something else. My first choice was Ben Aaronovitch’s Lies Sleeping – I bought his latest book just before the lockdown started and I’ve been catching up with the series since then. I don’t just enjoy the stories themselves – I love how intellectual the Latin and historical references make me feel!

Book Clubs at Home

May 6, 2020May 6, 2020 / Eleanor Jane / 2 Comments

Channel 4 have recently been doing a Stay at Home Academy in the evenings – Jamie Oliver did a series on cooking in the lockdown, then Kirstie Allsopp had some crafting episodes. This week is Richard and Judy’s turn – I was thrilled to find out that they are presenting ‘Keep Reading and Carry On’.

I have very much enjoyed the first few episodes. Of course, I would love for them to be longer so we could see some more in depth discussions of the books but the fact that there is a whole programme dedicated to books on primetime television is wonderful.

I particularly loved Graham Norton and Louis Theroux’s guest appearances. They both came across as genuinely enthusiastic about the books and I would love to have a bookish chat with either of them.

I have also been loving the bookshelves I have seen in the houses of everyone broadcasting from home. Stephen Fry has a particularly enviable study. However, when I watched the BBC’s Big Night In a couple of weeks ago my favourite background was Jason Manford’s – he had a blank wall behind him with pieces of paper pinned up saying, ‘Bookshelves’. I loved it!